‘Pinochet is smiling in his grave’
Ariel Dorfman at The New York Times
Augusto Pinochet, the “strongman who imposed a reign of terror on Chile from 1973 to 1990, must be smiling in his grave,” says Ariel Dorfman, because his “brazen defender and admirer José Antonio Kast has just been elected president of Chile.” Kast’s “victory is not necessarily a public endorsement of his veneration for Pinochet.” But the “rehabilitation of one of the continent’s most infamous autocrats is a particularly agonizing setback” in Chile’s “long struggle for democracy.”
‘What happens if AI data centers slip the “surly bonds of earth?”’
Anjana Ahuja at the Financial Times
If “ever there was proof that the race to feed the AI boom has become detached from reality, it came in a recent Google announcement that it would build a prototype solar-powered data center in space,” says Anjana Ahuja. This “would be a cosmic challenge — but while orbiting data centers minimize the need for planetary land and water, they promise unearthly problems of their own.” Launches “into crowded orbits risk creating space debris that could threaten vital services.”
‘You can say that again’
Christian Schneider at the National Review
Every “generation has its own lingo, and this shift in language irritates every generation that came before,” says Christian Schneider. We “shouldn’t bemoan the way language bends, stretches, and pulls; we should celebrate its flexibility.” It’s “not that young people are silly or flippant.” As “society progresses both culturally and technologically, new terms emerge to describe people’s feelings, and the best ideas rise.” New “words or phrases shouldn’t scare anyone, and criticizing language innovation is simply ragebait.”
‘Why young people are struggling to communicate’
Rachel Konrad and Matt Abrahams at Time
Communication skills are “essential for creating healthy relationships, maintaining mental health, fostering civic engagement, and building a successful career,” say Rachel Konrad and Matt Abrahams. But “while teenagers today are the most connected generation in history, they are also the least prepared to communicate with depth, confidence, and empathy.” The “environments where students develop communication skills are collapsing,” and the “bottom line is that young people are at risk of losing the communication skills that connect us.”
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
